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2013-04-14 message

posted Apr 23, 2013, 6:07 PM by St. John's Webmaster

The image of a ladder appears
many times in our faith. In the Old Testament, Jacob goes to sleep and sees
angels ascending to and descending from heaven on a ladder. He wakes up
awe-stricken by the presence of God. In the canon for the Salutations to the
Theotokos, we refer to her as a “ladder elevating everyone from earth by an act
of grace,” for by God’s grace the Father’s Son became her son, uniting the
divine with the human and opening paradise for everyone.

Today we remember St. John of
the ladder, an ascetic who lived in the seventh century, who wrote a book
called “The Ladder.” It is a book about
thirty steps in our spiritual journey, which is compared to a climb upon a
ladder. The book describes in detail the various qualities that are acquired in
this process, the difficulties which arise, and the means by which each step is
climbed.

The book is described also as an
icon. In this icon we see people at various places on a ladder, with Christ
awaiting at the top. There are also dark angels trying to pull people off the
ladder and saints and bright angels praying and encouraging those on the ladder
to continue upward. People are shown falling from various steps of the ladder –
both clergy and laity – as a reminder that vigilance is required in the
spiritual life, regardless of how far one may have traveled.

The genuine spiritual life,
therefore, is something that requires a certain amount of effort and that there
is a certain amount of peril associated with it in that those trying to live
this life will encounter trials from both people and demons who will try to
prevent them from persevering.

It should be noted at this point
that when we speak about the spiritual life in the Church, this is something
that the body participates in. Each part of our being-mind, body, and soul-is
involved in the spiritual life. Fasting, standing or kneeling in prayer, making
the sign of the cross, making prostrations, these are all means by which we use
our bodies to ascend the spiritual ladder. In this process, we achieve that
which we say in the prayers of baptism: “the body serving the reason-endowed
mind.” In climbing the ladder of the spiritual life, thus, we put things in the
correct order and set the right priorities for the eternal life.

May we, through the prayers of
St. John of the Ladder, persevere in climbing towards our loving God.